Wraith wrote on Apr 11, 2013, 09:28: The world has moved on since then and while Flashback was barely acceptable for its day, right now it - and Another World - are ancient relics best forgotten.

"Barely acceptable in its day"? It might as well be my favorite game of that generation, and easily in my top 30 games of all time. I don't know if it aged well (because I haven't played it in what, 12 years now?), but it was pretty awesome back then, and it was a commercial and critical success.

Then again, its sequel ("Fade to Black") was not nearly as good. But the box it came in was awesome.

It actually aged really well. The graphical style holds up and the gameplay/level-design is still superb. I replayed it last year. One of my favorite games ever.

Yeah, this is one of those games like Transport Tycoon or One Must Fall 2097 that will always look good because it has these beautifully drawn 2d graphics. And the gameplay is, while not overly difficult and a bit simplistic, very well polished and easy to get into so getting into such a game is not that difficult.

Huh? A Linux driver with optimus capabilities?I didn't really expect it to happen so soon, or at all.

After reading all the drama on the LKML archive it didn't seem likely that they'd do that, I wonder what exactly happened.I'm even more curious about whether that means that bumblebee is redundant now.

Though since I use Debian I'll probably not get these drivers for another two years, if not more.

[edit]Although the /. article states that it only allows for that functionality, not that it's actually implemented yet.Oh well, looks like there's still a long way to go.

InBlack wrote on Apr 8, 2013, 08:21:[...]yuastnav explained it pretty well, dont be daunted by the wall of text. Quantum mechanics is very exact and it works, which is what is the most important part of a physics or any scientific theory. [...]

Thanks, though I admit that it has been a while when it comes to quantum mechanics. Though I think that science also has to ask why something works the way it works, because only then you get the full story on how the world works.

InBlack wrote on Apr 8, 2013, 08:26:[...]The next TES is indeed an MMO, but its NOT made by Bethesda (merely published by them) and has been in production waaay before Skyrim became the huge success that it has. Bethesda has hinted that it will definitely release a single player TES once again.

Really? Woah sweet! I knew that TES Online wasn't made by Bethesda but I didn't know that Bethesda planned on making a new TES single player game. That is good news indeed although still sad because I feel that I will miss a lot of lore by not playing TES Online (which then I'll have to read up on on uesp.net).

eRe4s3r wrote on Apr 8, 2013, 08:38:Just saying, but thank you.. I didn't expect you to actually explain it properly

I find this science field one of the most interesting of all and so I was sad that nobody ever takes time to explain things anymore. (I mean, things from a basic level upwards, which is what one needs when one learned the COMPLETELY WRONG PHYSICS (apparently) in school).

Can you let me ask 1 more random question?

wouldn't the Silver atom detector experiment be explained by the Higgs Field doing it's thing? Or is this another matter entirely...?

Yeah but that depends on the school. I barely learned anything when I was in the Oberstufe because half of my physics courses didn't take place since the teacher was missing half the time, which is a shame. But it really takes a lot of time to explain that stuff properly. There are of course people who find that stuff easy but they are few and far between.

Why you get that result in the Stern-Gerlach experiment is explained by spin. Spin is a quantum number which, unlike angular momentum and the sort, has no classical pendant. It is sort of an intrinsic angular momentum of a particle. In this case we take the outer most electron of the silver atom which can have a spin of either +1/2 or -1/2, it is a degenerate state and this determines ultimately whether the silver atoms goes up or down (because of the magnet).The Higgs boson/field is a different matter altogether and the reason why it exists or why it is needed goes deeply into the quantum field theory and gauge invariance.I am not sure whether its significance is as important as it is made out to be. One of the reasons it is needed is for the standard model to be correct, which is great because the standard model works but we already know that it is not the final answer since there are aspects even the standard model cannot explain.The Higgs field itself is connected to the mass of sub-atomic, in this case the quarks and gluons. However most of a nucleon's (proton's or neutron's mass) doesn't come from the rest mass of the quarks. That means even if the Higgs boson didn't exist and the quarks therefore had zero rest mass the protons and neutrons would only be slightly lighter than they are, they would still retain most of their mass.Therefore the Higgs field is not that relevant to that particular problem.

Overon wrote on Apr 7, 2013, 21:59:*Minor spoiler* The gist of the plot is what is called "the many world interpretation of quantum mechanics." It's not exactly fantasy rubbish. Additionally there is meaning in almost everything in the game which supports the plot and this is what sets it apart from other games.

The MWI is totally fantasy rubbish. It doesn't deserve to be taught as physics.

Currently it occupies a weird space in science because it has not been tested and may not even be testable in principal . It's an interesting possibility, an idea, where the math can work somewhat, that's the way I understand it.

A theory that cannot be tested is not much of a scientific theory, no? I do not know whether it can be tested or not but being able to be tested is kinda important.

InBlack wrote on Apr 8, 2013, 08:12:

jdreyer wrote on Apr 7, 2013, 15:11:Skyrim is the freakin' Energizer Bunny of PC games.

Yeah this. This gives me hope that the next ES game will be their best. (Right now Morrowind is king)

eRe4s3r wrote on Apr 8, 2013, 07:25:I don't understand this at all. A proper experimental proof has never multiple interpretations. Why don't they just test each interpretation for validity?

As long as you can't tell me "Quantum mechanics work EXACTLY like this -> ....." exactly that long I won't consider quantum mechanics as anything more than a science that nobody working in it so far has fully understood. I mean, if they had understood quantum science, why can't they explain to us in layman terms how quantum mechanic works?

And what impression does it give when quantum scientists can't even agree among themselves what scientific fact is, and what speculation/interpretation is.

Someone really needs to explain this properly. Please I don't wanna become a quantum scientist, just explain to me what is the scientific truth. Without interpretation. Raw, experimentally deduced facts.

Quantum mechanics are mathematically completely sound.There is a mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics and it is rock solid. You can calculate probability amplitudes/densities, transition rates/probabilities etc. and then you can do experiments to verify that the calculations and the theoretical formulation is in accordance to what you can measure in your laboratory.

One of the big, not understood questions of quantum mechanics is why this is the case, i.e. why there is a 50% chance that a photon can go through either the left or through the right slit (when a particle detector is present), or why it behaves like a wave in the other case. That is open to interpretation. The question is not necessarily how quantum mechanics works (well, that is an important question, too, but not the one we are dealing with here) but why it works this way or rather why it seems to us humans that nature works in this way.

So the gist is: we can say how quantum mechanics works but not why. Although the many worlds theory, for example, doesn't necessarily answer that question. It answers it indirectly by saying "no, you got it all wrong, the wave function does not actually collapse, it branches off into different realities" but it does not give a reason for why this happens (or should happen) which is also a reason why it is highly questionable.

An important experiment in the history of quantum mechanics is the Stern-Gerlach experiment.A source of silver atoms is positioned on one side of a magnet while the detector is on the other side.The silver atoms are then shot at the detector with the magnetic field turned off and on. This is the result:http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/SternGerlach.pngFigure 2 shows what happened when the magnetic field was turned off while figure 3 shows the results with the magnetic field turned on.Since spin is quantised the silver atoms would be either in a spin +1/2 or spin -1/2 state which means that they accumulated either at the top end or the bottom end of the detector. There were no detections inbetween.The same thing goes for other variables, like the angular momentum or the energy. They are all quantised.Now the other thing is the probability.You can have a particle or something which is in a state that consists of a superposition of various eigenstates of the particle. For each of these eigenstates there is a probability that the particle is in that particular state and until a measurement is made you cannot determine in which state the particle actually is. That is non-deterministic nature of quantum mechanics.

We can take the hydrogen atom as an example. For the longest time people thought that the electron orbits the proton like a planet would do its sun but that is not true. There is actually a density cloud around the proton which is a distribution of positions in spacetime that the electron can occupy and until you make a measurement you cannot determine where it actually is, just that is is somewhere around the proton (though not too far because the orbital electron states around the atom are also quantised).

That's basically what all the fuss is about. I don't think that the discrete energy levels pose much of a problem, though it would be nice to understand why it is that way.The non-deterministic of quantum mechanics is a much greater problem and it's difficult to say why this is the case.

On the other hand if you have an electron travelling through the spacetime it has a certain (let's say constant) momentum and a changing position. If you want to know something about that electron you need to make a measurement which would subsequently alter the properties of the electron because you need a probe to make a detection, another electron or a photon or something like that.But since detecting it would mean they would need to interact the momentum of the electron would change and what you would get is only the momentum and/or position of the electron when it was in a certain state, i.e. at the time of detection.That is not a problem with microscopic objects since probing them with something wouldn't alter its momentum in a considerable manner but when you are dealing with energy magnitudes of MeV or GeV (or smaller) it becomes a problem.

Overon wrote on Apr 7, 2013, 21:59:*Minor spoiler* The gist of the plot is what is called "the many world interpretation of quantum mechanics." It's not exactly fantasy rubbish. Additionally there is meaning in almost everything in the game which supports the plot and this is what sets it apart from other games.

If that is the case then someone seriously misunderstood what the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is.Instead of the collapse of a wave function it branches off into all the various states that it can be in, i.e. a photon can go through either one slit or the other. In this case it goes through both but each of the states now corresponds to its own reality.From what I understand we then have a similar problem as in the Kopenhagen interpretation, there is no clear definition as to when that happens, e.g. when it becomes a quantum system.[spoiler]In the game it happens when Booker chooses to be baptised, or not. Not really a quantum system so there is no reason why it should branch here at all, at least in the quantum physical sense. So it's actually more fantasy than science because it is chosen completely arbitrary.[/spoiler]So yeah, the many worlds theory is, as already stated, not that scientific either because it has its own problems but what we have here is not even the many worlds theory but someone strange fantasy approach to it.Also it's strange, you casually say that everything in Bioshock Infinite has a meaning and that it is not the case in ANY other game. I wouldn't dare to make such a broad generalisation, mostly because I have not played all games there are.

Jerykk wrote on Apr 8, 2013, 01:13:[...]

Well, for me personally that is kind of a shame because the special powers weren't interesting to me in the first Bioshock, at all. I wanted to shoot because that is the only thing I am halfway decent at but the shooting wasn't that good either and the special powers just don't felt good.The one time that I remember having fun with something like that was with the force powers in Jedi Outcast/Academy.I'll just have to accept that Bioshock Infinite isn't for me.

I don't even mind that there aren't different ammo types but the alternative doesn't seem too appealing.

I also don't agree with him that Elizabeth is the best AI partner there ever was.Again, I am rather out of place complaining/talking about that because I have not played the game but I still think that how Valve handled it in Episode 1/2 with Alyx was really, really good.

Cram wrote on Apr 7, 2013, 20:37:

Fibrocyte wrote on Apr 7, 2013, 20:12:If the whiners that frequent this site give it mediocre reviews then it must be a really good game.

It is.

To the comment made that after reading about the plot and not being impressed, in this particular case reading the story and experiencing the story of Bioshock Infinite are two completely different things. That's my take on it, anyway. Discovering how it all fits together, on your own, is an experience all to it self.

*shrug*I just have different standards. If a story is good it has to be able to stand up on its own. For Bioshock Infinite it wasn't the case.On the other hand when I read the plot synopsis of Nier, a game that I really disliked before I saw a LP of it, I was really surprised by how good it is because it deals with more down to earth topics like the consciousness of an automaton, even if it still has unexplained fantasy rubbish stuff like the separation of body and soul.

eRe4s3r wrote on Apr 8, 2013, 05:12:None of the quantum mechanic interpretations are valid in the "physics" sense, they are mind-tricks to make quantum mechanical calculations work. They are not even trying to explain (with proof) what is actually happening.

Basically, nobody currently knows what Quantum Mechanics are. We know they are there, we can calculate them and we can use them. But we don't know why they do what they do.

Funny thing actually, but I am betting we are going to get an answer to that pretty soon.

That's not true. The basic, mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics is completely independent of its interpretations. You don't need to subscribe to any interpretation if you want to do calculations. In fact, as far as I know, most of the world's leading quantum physicists actually don't do that because they don't need it. And most of the physicists who do believe in an interpretation believe in the Kopenhagen interpretation which is based on the complementarity principle (thought this is also rather arbitrary because this is the interpretation that is the most taught of all). And the interpretations are actually trying to explain what is happening, that's what they are there for, that's why they are called interpretations. But again, not needed for the actual calculations or experiments at all.The de Broglie-Bohm theory (or Bohmsche Mechanik) is a theory that expands the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics as a means of interpreting it in a causal manner.

I've actually been trying to make a plane that I can launch from the landing field, which then flies to another planet and gets back so it can land again.I have not succeeded, unfortunately.The problem is that I cannot even get it off the planet which is pretty frustrating but because the tank actually requires oxygen the thing is too heavy to leave the atmosphere or even get above the 10 km mark.Has someone even been successful in such an endeavour?

Shocking how much hype there is about this mediocre game. As with Bioshock a few years ago, the one-eyed is king amongst the blind. Its a sad fact, that a mediocre (not bad, but not THAT good) shooter like Bioshock is indeed the pinnacle of the shooter genre in our days.

Bioshock Infinite isn't really a pure shooter though, it is one of those genre bending games that make traditional comparisons like yours meaningless. To call this game mediocre because the shooting isn't like Quake or something is just wrong. Unlike most games which forget that the gameplay is supposed to be in service to something, Bioshock Infinite propels you through a very compelling story with fantastic characters.

The gameplay on its own is slightly above average but as a total package the game delivers and that's what matters in the end.

But it is a shooter and if the shooting doesn't feel good then it ultimately fails in that respect.Again, I have not played the game, I just read about it and I watched TotalBiscuit's WTF where he talks a lot about the shooting and just watching the video made me not want to play the game.About whether the world is beautifully designed or not I do not care much since these things do not interest me, I am not someone who can appreciate visual art that well. So what would interest me would be other things and shooting is definitely one of them and watching that video made me want to play something like Painkiller because this is a game that has really good shooting.Genre bending or not, it is still, even partly, a shooter and if everything is absolutely fantastic except the shooting then it's not an absolutely fantastic game.

Overon wrote on Apr 7, 2013, 17:17:For me bioshock infinite plot is a masterpiece of writing. Everything in the game is so chalk full of meaning which the designers actually intended and you don't have to read into it to discover it.

This is the one thing I am curious about. I did not play the game but I read (about) the plot because I was curious since everyone praised it so much and I wasn't impressed actually.The plot is above average, especially for a shooter, but it's actually not that great and deals with the same fantasy rubbish as other plots of that genre. :/I am talking, of course, about the overall plot synopsis, i.e. the gist of the story. I have no idea about how the characters interact with each other.

Man, I gotta play Precursors.I played for what... 2 hours? And spent most of those just talking to everyone at the city. I was kinda put off by how unpolished it is, though.Don't get me wrong, I was used to this kind of thing from playing a lot of Boiling Point but Precursors was actually worse in that respect.

Ah, sorry again, what I meant to write was that I never played it in multiplayer but I did actually play the game. I remember that this was the game I bought my only joystick for, which I still have. Unfortunately it is collecting dust at the moment but I've been eyeying a Saitek X 52 althought I am not really sure what I would use it for.

At least I think I played this game. This was the one were you piloted this YT-1300 or something, correct?

Don't know whether people play today but for the longest time there was a 32 player CTF server for Jedi Outcast called "[united] Courscant", I think.Maybe it is still around? Have not played JO in many years. It was really great fun back then.And in 2002/2003 I also only had a 56k modem and multiplayer was still great although people tended to kick me from the server for having a 300/400 ms ping.